Can't copy iPhoto Library file

I am trying to copy my iPhoto library from one mac to another. I have them connected with an Ethernet cable. The library is about 90 GB. When I drag the library file over it appears to copy about 1/5 of the file (judging by the blue line) and then it stops and says something like, "the iPhoto Library file already exists."
Anyone have any ideas? I certainly checked the target drive/folder and don't see any previously existing library file sitting there.
Thanks in advance!

There must be something more to this problem. I don't think that it is iPhoto library specific b/c I have the same sorts of error when copying other folders of data between the two computers. Strangely enough, when I initiate the copy command from the other computer (the one that has the files I want to copy), it works without a hitch. I guess I'll just do it that way.
Thanks.

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Can I copy iPhoto Library from G4 to G5 back to G4 back to G5, etc.?

Can a single iPhoto Library (~27gb) be copied back & forth between my PowerBook G4 & my iMac G5 (to & from the separate hard drive to which I copy the Library for backup) on a continuing basis?
My hope is that anytime my wife or I might do some editing, albums, books, adding photos, etc., on either of the computers, to that 'one & only' Library, we would then also copy it to the other computer – so at any given time both computers could have the same Library (obviously we would be careful to not both make changes on both computers at the same time, thus inadvertently stumbling into two versions of the Library).
I envision this, for now, as an alternative to possibly venturing into the creation of additional, different Libraries.
Will this work? Are there risks involved?

As Brooks said, you should be able to. I would be careful to reset the permissions on the folder and it's contents after each move so as to make sure you have the proper access for viewing and editing. You can do it manually as follows:
Setting Permissions for iPhoto Library Folder
1 - Select the iPhoto Library folder and type Command-I.
2 - When the Info window comes up go to the Ownership and Permissions section and make sure You have Read & Write permission and that the Owner and Group have Read & Write also. Others - Read Only.
3 - Then click on the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.

IPhoto can't find iPhoto Library files

Hi All,
I have a older iMac running 10.4, 512MB RAM. It was running very slowly and reading other posts figured my large iPhoto library (iPhoto 6) was the culprit. I moved all but 2011 pictures to an external hard drive and deleted files from my iPhoto Library (did this through the Finder, not iPhoto). I can see my .jpg files on the external drive and can see the 2011 .jpg files on my HD in the iPhoto Library. When I launch iPhoto, I have no photos. Within iPhoto I've tried to "import to library" and select my 2011 folder of .jpg's but the file is "unreadable". I've tried changing the location of my iPhoto Library folder and "chose library" but that hasn't worked either.
I think I may have deleted some file or path that allows iphoto to access the iphoto library folder (I copied back a "data folder" from the external HD but that didn't solve my problem) but I can't figure out what it could be. Can anyone help? I am just barely literate and apparently, know just enough to get myself into trouble, so "dumbed down" instructions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks for any help you can lend!
Shannon

believe it or not, but I did do some research before I started... I was just trying to back up files and create space - don't you people advocate for that kind of thing?
I don't think that I did not follow your link... I did not move the entire contents of my original library, just most, I wanted... well it doesn't matter - I was able to solve the problem following a tip posted by "Old Toad" found below.
Thanks for trying to help - I'm just glad I can see my photos again.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

Can't copy Iphoto library from external drive to hard drive

I have a 210 gig iphoto library that I am trying to copy from an external hard drive with 440 gig of avaliable space. I am getting a message say it can't copy because there is not enough space. The math doesn't add up

Try the following:
1 - run Disk Utility and repair disk permissions.
2 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
3 - Run Option #4, Rebuild Database, followed by Option #1.
4 - try dragging the library to your internal drive again.
OT

Can't Find iPhoto Library File

I'm going crazy here! I cannot find the iPhoto Directory file I need to locate to delete it and create a new file in my external drive.
I can't seem to find an indication in the Preferences section of the program itself either.
I've done a search with the name, I've looked everywhere in Finder, Library, User directories, etc. I can't say I've looked EVERYWHERE because obviously that file is somewhere!
Any ideas? It just doesn't seem to be where it would normally be defaulted to. Somewhere in time I must have moved it.

Niel, thank you very much for your response. Mystery solved and found the "iPhoto Library" folder.
However, I discovered a bizarre condition. Not sure if you can shed light on this, but here it is:
The file exists in a sub directory which trails back to a main folder that seems to not exist. In other words, I cannot path down to this file from a drive to folder to sub folder in Finder. That main root directory is not showing in Finder!
Maybe this is a clue: The directory when I follow your search commands lists the folder location starting with "/Volumes/..." I don't have any directories or drives with that starting name.
Any comments on this mystery is appreciated.

How can I copy my iPhoto library file to my other macs?

I have 4 Mac's and I've kept all my photos on one of them primarily. How can I find the iPhoto library file and copy it to the other Macs?

There are two apps that can do that for your.
1 - the better of the two is iPhoto Library Manager. You will have to manually select those Events in Library A that are not in Library B and copy them to B. Then do the same for B to A. This also copies both the original and edited versions, keywords, titles, descriptions, faces and places.
2 - the second app is SyncPhotos. This one is automatic and will copy the original images in A that are not in B into B and the same for B to A. This does not copy edited versions or any of the metadata, i.e. keywords, etc.

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

That code is
-36
ioErr
I/O error (bummers)
Make sure the EHD is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and run Disk Utilty on the EHD and repair the disk. If that fails to help I'd try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button,
navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the external HD as the location of the newly rebild library.
Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

Why does the iPhoto library file copy so slowly?

Every few months I back up all the important stuff on my MacBook Pro (Mid 2012, 13", 750GB) to my 3TB external hard drive.
This has worked well for as long as I can remember. I used to have a proper backup program but due to the nature of my work and files, recently I prefer to just manually copy over each individual folder in my parent home folder, so I can have control of what is replaced and what is merged, etc.
However this time backing up, I had to copy every folder and file in 'Pictures' separately. This is because after trying to copy the parent folder in one transfer it didn't seem to be working well. I noticed that around the 11.22GB mark, the transfer would always slow right down from ~35MB/s to ~0.5MB/s. As you can imagine, with a Pictures folder totalling almost 300GB, this isn't something I wanted to put up with.
In the end, I figured out what was causing the issue. I tried copying just the iPhoto library file and discovered the problem occurred again.
Why? Is this a Yosemite bug or is it to do with the way that the file is structured?
It works fine otherwise and does not seem damaged.

no idea
maybe if you provided some information someone could help
What version of iPhoto? Of the OS? Why do you think it is getting larger? what exactly are you doing?
Could it be downloading photos from Your PhotoStream?
LN

IPhoto Library file partially copied to an external drive

Hi,
I tried to copy my iPhoto Library file to an external drive. The file is about 8GB and when I copied the file to the external drive, it stopped copying up to 277MB. The message from the finder indicates that the "operation can't be completed because an item with the name "iPhoto Library" already exists. I deleted the file from my external drive and empty trash so the file shouldn't be there. I also created a new folder for the destination and still the same problem. It stops copying up to 277MB. Very strange. Now I can't backup this file.
Thanks for your help.

Was having the same issue. Noticed that Time Machine was running. Stopped that and I was able to copy the file over. Another suggestion that I saw was in the link below.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10132724&#10132724

Can't load iphoto library copied from old computer

I copied the photo library from my old laptop onto my new imac. The pictures are all there (LOTS) and all album data, etc. I tried launching iphoto while holding the option key. I select the iphoto library but none of the new photos come up. Did I miss step?

I still can only view the previous pictures (one roll) that was downloaded onto iphoto even though all of my pictures (3K+) from my other computer are in the iphoto library.
Do you have two iPhoto Library Folders? Or is these pics visible in one library, but the others are not?
IF the latter, it sounds like a corrupted database. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library Folder allowing it to overwrite the damaged file. If not, then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same film rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, books, calendars etc.
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library Folder on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual rolls to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library Folder on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

TS4213 Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?

Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?
Examples of what is going on:
1. In Pages, Numbers & Keynote, when I go to the media browser the Audio section reads "Open iTunes to populate this list" even after iTunes has been opened, .xml file has been replaced/repaired, etc AND Photo section reads "Open iPhoto to see photos from your iPhoto Library in this list" even after iPhoto Library has been replaced and new default library created.
2. In iMovie, similar thing ... when I go to add photos or music to a movie the iTunes files aren't present and the iPhoto photos are missing with similar messages as in #1.
3. In iPhoto, similar thing ... when I go to add music to a slideshow it says to "Open iTunes to populate this list".
It is shocking to me that Apple would let something as simple as a pathway link to associated library files get this messed up on an upgrade, but what's even more surprising is that with the number of people who seem to be having this particular issue (and I can tell from all the research that I've done for weeks online that there are a lot of them) that there doesn't seem to be a single clear answer to fixing it anywhere on these community support forums. Most of what I've seen is rehashed advice from outdated issues. What I need is a simple answer to how do we get these programs to look for the correct location of the photo and music files because I sure can't seem to find any logical place to do that through the programs' preferences files or the system preferences window?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. Here's the details on the software/hardware:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X
Version 10.7.5
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
iTunes 11.0.4 (4)
iPhoto '11 9.4.3 (720.91)
iMovie '11 9.0.9 (1795)
Keynote '09 5.3 (1170)
Pages '09 4.3 (1048)
Numbers '09 2.3 (554)

I have the same problem on a new MacBook Pro. I have not been able to access the iTunes library from iPhoto since I got this computer. I looked in the Preferences file and deleted the com.apple.iApps.plist but there was no com.apple.iApps.lockfile so I just deleted the iAPPs.plist and rebooted the computer. Still no iTunes available in iPhoto.
All my music is in iTunes and plays. After reading the above I brought up Pages and I was able to access music and insert a track into a document.
Do you have any suggestions.

I am trying to copy iphoto library Error Code 36

I am trying to copy iphoto library from one hard drive to another and get the message The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “iPhoto Library” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36) = Need to back iy up or my wife will kill me. thanks for help

Here is something you can try:
Obtain iPhoto Library Manager. It is an inexpensive program you can download. Run it and tell it to REBUILD your iPhoto Library from your original iPhoto Library. It will create a NEW file in a destination that you specify (you can specify the other hard drive and thus get a backup all at once) and try to recreate the iPhoto Library based on the info from your original one. Depending on the problem causing your -36 file error, iPhoto Library Manager may (a) successfully recreate your entire photo library successfully on the other hard drive; (b) recreate all of your original photo library except for the part that is damaged; or (c) won't be able to finish at all if the disk problems are severe enough.
If (c) happens, you may have to copy the actual photos individually out of the iPhoto Library and into a new iPhoto Library. The actual photos are inside the iPhoto Library. You can find them by control-click once on the iPhoto Library and select Show Package Contents. The folder called Originals or Masters has the photos (originals) and a folder called Modified or Previews has the edited photos. I suggest COPYING (not moving) these folders to the external drive. You will then need to re-import the actual photos inside these folders to a new iPhoto Library.

Can't restore iPhoto Library from Time Machine. Faults halfway through.

POSTED EARLIER ON iPHOTO 9 DISCUSSION-recommended checking here.
My wife is running a Mac Mini with iPhoto 9. She has let her hard drive space drop to about 4gigs. This morning, she opened iPhoto and nothing came up. I looked at some of the posts here and did the following 1) ran disk utility to repair permissions 2) removed enough files to get her available hard drive space above 10gigs. Mostly by moving to her external hard drive. 3) Based on what I was reading, I copied her iPhoto library and related files to a folder on her external drive. I then deleted the iPhoto library file itself. 4) I went into TimeMachine and ran it back to the last backup yesterday and asked it to Restore that file.
The process went forward smoothly until it hit about 5.5gigs of the 46.5gig file. At that point it stopped and a dialogue box said "the operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access iPhoto library". I ran it again---essentially it fails after restoring the thumbnails. I checked permissions for iPhoto and it shows 'read and write' as the settings.
Any suggestions? Is using Time Machine for this purpose not workable? Thanks in advance for your help.

Disk utility ran through the REPAIR disk function on the Time Machine drive and came back good. I then ran the VERIFY disk function on the Main disk and it also came back good. I was not offered a REPAIR disk option for the Main Disk.
No errors. Any other suggestions?

Can't Open iPhoto Library

My iPhoto library is on a FW drive (too big for laptop drive). I've been able to open it before and have used it many times, but now I can't access it. Sometimes I've opened iPhoto without the FW drive attached, so created a library on my local drive, but when I opened iPhoto holding down the Option key, I was able to choose my normal library.
Not any more.
I can open the "iPhoto Library" package in Finder and see all of the photos, but when I try to point iPhoto to it, it won't open. It won't accept it as input in the dialogue box. I hit the "Open" button, but it doesn't do anything.
How can I get iPhoto to open this library? I'm using iPhoto 7.1.1 on Leopard 10.5.1.

R_ H
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
I'm afraid it sounds like the library file has been damaged.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums back.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

Why is the iPhoto Library file so big?

Why is the iPhoto Library File so big?
I cancelled the option in settings that it copies the files to the Library but the LIbrary file grows and grows when I import new photos?
Can someone help me?

You have disabled "Copy items to the iPhoto Library"?
Then the original image files should not be imported; you can check this by selecting one of the recently imported photos and using the command "File > Reveal in Finder > Original File". Does it show you a file outside the library?
Your library will grow in size, when you import and edit photos, even if the originals are not included. iPhoto will store thumbnails of your photos, previews of the edited versions, of the faces, and if you sync your library with iTunes, there will also be an iPod Photo cache, that can be quite large:
iTunes: Understanding the iPod Photo Cache folder
You know, that disabling "Copy items to the iPhoto Library" is quite risky, don't you? Just in case you are not aware of the risks - iPhoto does provide no tools at all, if the connection between your referenced original files and your thumbnails in iPhoto gets broken. Or if you need to move your photos to a different drive, when the drive fails, as will happen one day. You will not be able to migrate the library to a new computer or restoring from your backup will be difficult. You will need third party apps like iPhoto Library Manager to recover from such a situation.
If you need to free space on your mac it is much safer to move the whole library to an external drive, or to split it and relocate the partial library with the older photos to an external drive.
-- Léonie

Can't copy iPhoto Library file

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